Page Rank 8 Directory for $66 – I smell bullshit!

If you were offered a subcategory listing on a Page Rank 8 directory for $66 a year, would you jump at the chance? I know many who would trample their own parents to death with spiked golf shoes in the rush to get their hands on this. But I know a fair few more that would step back and say – “No, no, no, this doesn’t sound right at all!”

This happened today when a directory came across the radar of the folks over at Digital Point spotted an eight month old directory boasting a PageRank 8 (TBPR) offering submissions for $66. Like many, they were puzzled and rightly so. The web directory in mind beats mega sites such as Mashable, TechCrunch and matches the mighty Digg.com. How can a lowly little web directory that is eight months old have a PageRank 8?

It appears after some digging that the site in question had acquired a link in the form of a period in the content on a PageRank 9 domain via much speculated unscrupulous methods (hacking, backhanders, inside job) just before last week’s Toolbar PageRank update. This not only passed a shit load of PageRank to the homepage, but it has also (I would imagine) garnered a fair bit of cash from people quickly wanting to jump on the bandwagon whilst the PageRank 8 is sitting on the homepage waiting to drip down into the inner pages. How long that lasts before a backroom block by Google is anyone’s guess but I know I won’t be risking my cash.

About the Author

Kev Strong is an online marketing consultant at Newcastle Upon Tyne based digital marketing agency, Mediaworks.
A lover of all things search and an ex-web developer, Kev Strong (a.k.a Goosh) is a specialist in advanced search engine optimisation.